HBO
It has been three years since the first season of Paolo Sorrentino’s Pope miniseries has been on the air. The Young Pope, starring Jude Law, aired in the spring of 2017. Now in 2020, Law is back alongside John Malkovitch for The New Pope, the follow-up miniseries that picks up right where the first miniseries left off. Here’s what you need to know about the date, time, channel, plot and more for the premiere of The New Pope.
The New Pope Premiere Time & Date: The New Pope premieres Monday, January 13 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, with a rebroadcast of the premiere episode airing immediately afterward and several times throughout the following week before episode two airs on Monday, January 20.
The New Pope Premiere Channel: This miniseries is a joint venture between HBO and British TV’s Sky Atlantic and French TV’s Canal+. The new season premiered on Sky Atlantic on January 10; the Canal+ premiere in France and the HBO premiere in the U.S. are on January 13.
The New Pope Premiere Cast: Returning from the first miniseries are Law as Pope Pius XIII (born Lenny Belardo), Silvio Orlando as Cardinal Angelo Voiello, Javier Camara as Cardinal Bernardo Gutierrez, Cecile de France as Sofia, Ludivine Sagnier as Esther, and Maurizio Lombardi as Cardinal Mario Assente.
New cast members include Malkovitch in the title role, J. David Hinze, Mark Ivanir, Antonio Petrocelli, Henry Goodman, Ulrich Thomsen, Massimo Ghini, Yuliya Snigir, Daniel Vivian, and guest stars Sharon Stone and Marilyn Manson.
The New Pope Premiere Plot: Pope Pius XIII lies in a coma and has become a bit of a saint with a certain group of Catholics. But the pressure is on Cardinal Voiello to find a new pope and the conclave is in a deadlock. So he makes a harried move to install Sir John Brannox (Malkovitch) on the papal throne and it throws the Church into complete chaos.
Creator Sorrentino tells GQ that it wont only be about Brannox. Viewers will know exactly what is going on inside Pius XIIIs mind while he is in a coma.
“We’ll know everything about Pope Lenny. The two stories run in parallel. We will understand a lot about Lenny. I can’t reveal too much, but I can guarantee that you will know everything that you need to know. It’s a series with two lead characters — Jude Law and John Malkovich — and both of them factor in,” says Sorrentino.
HBO
Then as rumors swirl throughout the Church surrounding a sudden and mysterious death, Voiello and Gutierrez work to convince Brannox to accept the papal appointment. When he finally does, he adopts the name John Paul III and begins preaching about the importance of family, truth, and love in his first public homily.
Meanwhile, the Church is under attack from external threats
and scandals striking the symbols of Christianity and risking irreversibly devastating the hierarchies. As always, however, in the Vatican, nothing is what it seems.
The New Pope premieres Monday, January 13 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO.